Ghana’s banking industry emphasizes biometric verification for secure transactions

Stakeholders in Ghana’s banking industry have underlined the significant role biometric identity verification plays in combatting financial fraud.

Banking and identity management officials emphasized that instead of asking for photocopies of one’s national identity card (Ghana Card), biometric verification is the surest way of determining that the person engaged in the transaction is exactly who they claim to be.

These discussions on the role of biometric identity verification in secure financial transactions were organized by Identity Management Systems II (IMS II) Ltd in collaboration with Ghana’s National Identification Authority (NIA), as Daily Guide Network reports. IMS II is a subsidiary of Margins Group, the company producing the Ghana Card.

The stakeholder engagement forum, which took place under the theme “Protect every transaction with biometric verification” also drew the involvement of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), the Ghana Association of Banks, and representatives from several banking institutions operating in the country.

Speaking during the event, IMS II Executive Director, James Cantamantu-Koomson, noted that identity verification approaches in the banking industry are fast changing especially given the emergence of different forms of fraud threats.

He highlighted identity verification as being at the epicentre of banking transactions, hailing the identity database of the NIA as one of the most important assets for secure transactions in the country.

A BoG official, Ashitei Trebi-Ollenu, who addressed the forum, strongly spoke against the idea of photocopying ID cards for banking operations, saying that has never been their recommendations. He said rather, such a practice is dangerous because it “leaves room for fraud and compromises the integrity of transactions.”

The NIA representative, Teresa Eson-Benjamin, for her part, also spoke about the role of the identity authority in ensuring secure identity verification through the national identity database which is the only database allowed for identity verification.

Stakeholders were unanimous at the end of the reflections that biometric identity verification is the most reliable way to effectively protect transactions and keep away lurking fraudsters who look out for the least mistake or vulnerability to strike.

The stakeholder engagement on biometric verification for banking transactions comes not long after the NIA issued a policy advisory insisting that all identification processes involving the Ghana Card must include biometrics.

The NIA said then that it had come to its attention some institutions rely on non-biometric identity verification methods such as lookup lists and visual (ocular) inspection of the Ghana Card, to verify identities of persons they transact business with.

Last month, Ghana said it received 700,000 blank cards to clear a backlog of national ID cards.

Article Topics

Africa  |  banking  |  financial services  |  fraud prevention  |  Ghana  |  identity management  |  identity verification  |  Margins ID Group  |  National Identification Authority (NIA)